Officer Travis Testerman is our community police officer; he covers the area from North 50th Street to North 90 Street, from I-5 to Third Avenue Northwest. He can be reached at 206-233-3984 or travis.testerman@seattle.gov.

Officer Scott McGlashan covers the area from North 110th Street to the Ship Canal, from Third Avenue Northwest to the Sound. He can be reached at 206-233-3733 or scott.mcglashan@seattle.gov.

The City Attorney Liaison is at 206-684-7765.

And here’s a list of Public Safety Numbers:

Police, fire and medical emergencies: 911

Incidents not needing an officer to be dispatched: 206-625-5011

North Precinct Watch Commanders, for thank yous or concerns: 206-684-0856

Community Police Team, for chronic, ongoing problems not resolved by 911: 206-684-0794

Wine enthusiasts now have a place in Ballard to store their wine. The final business in newly refurbished Kolstrand Building (4743 Ballard Ave NW) is now open.The Cellar wine storage recently opened in the basement of the building. “The 100% subterranean location creates the ideal natural cellar environment,” according to the website. People can store their wine (starting at 18 cases for $41/month), enjoy their wine in the 600 square foot tasting room and have special events catered by the two Kolstrand restaurants – The Walrus and the Carpenter or Staple & Fancy.

Ballard is home to one of the country’s best vinyl record shops, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal highlighted five stores across the country including Bop Street Records (2220 N.W. Market St.)
From the WSJ:

The sight of a beloved record shop closing its doors has become a troubling trend in recent years. Fortunately when this long-running Ballard neighborhood favorite did just that last summer it was only to move across town to a smaller space. Still, we don’t envy the moving crew involved in that one—it has some 500,000 records in stock even after streamlining the operation.

In order to determine how people use the community centers, Seattle Parks and Recreation is starting a pilot project to count customers.

Starting today, people heading to all 25 community centers, including the Ballard Community Center (6020 28th Ave NW) and Loyal Heights Community Center (2101 NW 77th St) will be asked to sign in indicating their age group and time of arrival.

The pilot project, which will last two weeks, will help Parks staff respond to a City Council directive to reconsider how community centers are operated. After two weeks Parks will evaluate the information and decide whether to extend it for 10 more weeks. The process, which includes public meetings to discuss with the community ideas for how centers can be run differently, began with a public meeting on February 2.

The directive comes in the context of the budget: the cost to run the 26 centers far exceeds revenue brought in from center programs. Because of the current difficult budget situation, Parks is exploring alternatives that would offer continued services for the public, while reducing costs, including new methods of management, staffing, fundraising, and partnerships. Learning the average age groups, frequency of visits, and numbers of people visiting community centers each day will help this work.

The Parks Department will use input from the public to develop options for the community centers. There will be another public meeting this spring to get input on the specific options.

While downtown Ballard, old Ballard Avenue specifically, might be the gem of our neighborhood, this month Seattle Magazine takes a look at another thriving street – 24th Ave NW. The magazine features “sweet streets shaping Seattle’s future,” the article states. “Here you’ll find colorful coffee shops and a chic wine bar mixing with old-school taverns and a traditional barbershop, along with the newfangled On The Park apartments, complete with an expansive QFC supermarket offering a far more impressive selection of produce, fish and meat than the old QFC store it replaced.” Fourteen businesses are highlighted from the Classic Consignment on the south end to The Viking at the north end. Click here to read more about what’s going on along 24th Ave NW

A large response of firefighters rushed to a sailboat fire at Shilshole Marina just before noon. The fire was contained to a single sailboat — it started in the engine compartment — and firefighters were able to knock down the flames quickly.
My Ballard reader David sent us this photo of fire crews responding to the I dock. As is customary, dispatchers send a huge group of firefighters to boat fires in marinas, as flames can quickly spread to other boats. In this case, 6 engines were among the dispatch, as well as a fire boat and the Coast Guard. For more details on the dispatch, the My Ballard forum covered it here as it happened. (Thanks David and Silver!)

It’s not just the Swedes that are looking for reality TV contestants, the Norwegians are, too! Ballardite Glenn Eriksen let us know that a crew from “Jakten på Kjærlighet” (“The Hunt for Love”) will be in Seattle next month to interview Norwegian-American candidates. More information can be found here. (Thanks, Glenn!)

During the summer do you find yourself with too many berries, more tomatoes than you can handle (except maybe last summer), or an expertise like canning that you can teach others? A pair of Ballardites wants to bring neighbors together to share their bounty and knowledge.

Ericka Sisolak and Creagh Miller are proposing a new project called Backyard Barter. “Backyard Barter is a community where neighbors barter locally produced food, related skills and materials,” Sisolak tells us. “Seedlings, eggs, extra produce, canned goods, the use of garden tools, expertise in garden construction and design, a helping hand with food-related projects and the list could go on and on.”

The Backyard Barter project consists of two elements – a community website and monthly events. The website will be for individuals to connect with each other and determine if they have anything to barter. “The monthly events will be in-person bartering events, information sessions, or collaborative events with other local organizations focused on local food,” says Sisolak. “The idea is to encourage individuals to connect and to help to build a sense of community.”

People without gardens shouldn’t feel left out, Sisolak tells us. “People in apartments could get involved in a number of ways. The concept is to barter locally produced food, skills and materials For instance if someone in an apartment cans regularly and would like to trade for some eggs, that could be arranged. Or if someone in an apartment likes to garden but does not have the space, perhaps they could help a local home owner with their garden once a week in exchange for some of the bounty.”

The duo recently applied for a Small and Simple Grant through the Department of Neighborhoods to develop and maintain the BackyardBarter.org website help pay for monthly events. “We have a number of volunteers committed to about 12 thousand hours of volunteer labor over the next year, and the grant money would fill in the gaps,” Sisolak says. They find out next month if the grant has been approved. “Regardless of funding from the city, we plan to launch by the summer.”

This summer local wading pools may once again be closed for the season, or for a few days each week, to make up for the budget shortfall. To keep the pools open, Seattle Parks and Recreation is looking for “partners” to help fund them.

As of right now, of the 25 wading pools in the city, ten will close because of budget problems, including three that are being converted to water spray parks like at Ballard Commons, five wading pools open seven days a week and another ten open three days a week.

Parks hopes to expand the schedule to increase family recreational opportunities in a way that is economically and geographically equitable. Some communities may be more organized or have different access to funding sources, so Parks would pair wading pools as a way to ensure balanced and equal recreational opportunities across our city. Under this partnership, Parks would keep the wading pool open one additional day each week in the neighborhood from which the funds came, and Parks would select a second site that the contribution would fund as well.

Opportunities include:

· Sponsoring two wading pools one day per week through the summer at a cost of $8,800

· Sponsoring two wading pools for three days per week during the last two weeks of summer at a cost of $6,600

· Sponsoring a one day wading pool operation for a special event at a cost of $650

· Receiving recognition on the Seattle Parks and Recreation website

· Sponsoring an unfunded wading pool three days per week through the summer

For more information, or for organizations interested in a partnership with Parks and Recreation to provide more access to wading pools this summer, please contact Bill Dougherty, 206-684-7185, bill.dougherty@seattle.gov, or Kathy Whitman, 206-684-7099, kathy.whitman@seattle.gov, no later than May 1, 2011.

Last summer the Soundview wading pool (1590 NW 90th St) was open three days a week and the Gilman pool was closed all season. The spray park at Ballard Commons Park (5701 22nd Ave NW) was open seven days a week.

Each month the Ballard Rotary chooses two students of the month. Here is a little about this month’s:

Jordan Travis is a BHS senior with a 3.75 GPA. She is a gifted student athlete who plays for the BHS soccer team and recently signed a letter of intent to play soccer for Gonzaga. She has started her college curriculum through the running start program in coordination with ShorelineCommunity College and has also volunteered in various service projects such as the “Free to Breathe” foundation.

Elliot Keder is also a talented student with a 3.83 GPA. He is a 4 year member of the BHS band and is a member of both the wind and Jazz ensembles as an Alto Sax player. He is looking forward to attending college next year at either BostonUniversity or the University of Washington.